In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Facebook’s pending redesign, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill’s desire for a universal Do-Not-Track tool, and much more.
CNET’s Dennis O’Reilly shares step-by-step advice on how individuals can remove YouTube videos or Facebook photos by flagging them as inappropriate content. While the technique isn’t foolproof, in some cases it could be useful in getting unwanted content taken down. A more successful method of dealing with negative online content is to displace it with positive content.
Facebook is testing a major redesign that would allow the company to sell more expensive and effective advertising. Quoting The Atlantic, “The new homepage tweak, if made public (and it probably will be), would keep the placement of advertisements and the menu navigation window static. As the user scrolls down the page, scanning their News Feed and checking in on friends, these elements would follow them. The navigation bar at the top of the screen and even the site’s footer would also remain static.” Because the ads will remain static, advertisers will likely see higher impression rates and higher click-through rates, meaning Facebook can charge more for the advertising space.
FTC Commissioner Julie Brill has continued to push for a universal do-not-track mechanism to protect Internet users from invasive advertising. During a speech at the Center for American Progres, Brill said Web-based companies are “harvesting and trading in information about where we are, what we do, who we meet and what we buy,” and that, “the amount of tracking of an individual’s behavior online — what sites she visits, what ads she clicks on, what she says when she chats and where she wanders through the day — is unprecedented.” Interestingly, the FTC’s CTO Ed Felten questioned the feasibility of an Internet delete button calling the development of such technology a “headscratcher.”
Popular Science recently published a point/counterpoint on the subject of mandatory Internet IDs. The first article, which promotes the idea, says “the envisioned ‘identity ecosystem’ will provide Americans with a number of different options for ‘trusted credentials’ that will step up the protection of their online identities without sacrificing their privacy.” The counter argument argues that “as imperfect and piecemeal as our current safeguards can be, creating yet another online ID that hackers will inevitably exploit is not the way to boost privacy or make people feel better about online transactions.”
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reviews Erasing David, a new documentary film that explores the concept of privacy and anonymity in the new digital age. In the film, the filmmaker attempts to “disappear” for 30 days, and hires a well-respected private investigations firm to track him down. The result is a thought-provoking documentary on how much information we share online and whether we have control of our digital lives.
It’s something that most people rarely consider, but online impersonation is a threat to each and every one of us. In a gripping account for Salon.com, playwright and author Susan Arnout Smith shares her story of how she became the victim of a sustained online impersonation attack and how, despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get Facebook to do anything about it.
The article is so well-written that it merits a full read, but here’s the summary. At the behest of a PR person, Smith overcame her trepidations about Facebook and joined the popular social networking site. Within days, she was already seeing the benefit of the website, connecting with old friends, expanding her professional network, and more.
Then, out of the blue, she received an e-mail from her PR adviser asking about an unusual Facebook profile. It had Smith’s name, it had Smith’s picture, but it wasn’t Smith.
Filled with offensive language and claims that Smith was paying for sex, the fake Facebook profile was a vicious attack on Smith’s reputation. Worse yet, it had been online for eight months, well before she decided to use the site for yourself. In other words, for eight months, someone (or some people as Smith comes to learn) had been pretending to be her online, ruining her professional credibility and destroying her life without her even knowing it.
The rest of the article details Smith’s efforts to have the fake profile removed, explaining how Facebook offered little assistance and how she eventually had to take matters into her own hands to discover the individuals behind the account.
We often talk about the importance of online reputation management here at Reputation.com, but never has the need for proactive ORM been demonstrated more clearly than in this article. Perhaps if Smith were monitoring her name online, she could have spotted this fake profile sooner. Maybe if she’d invested in personal branding tools, she could have fought off the fake Facebook profile with positive online content.
Obviously, you can’t blame Susan Arnout Smith for what happened to her. She was a victim, pure and simple. And that’s the important takeaway from this story. We are all potential victims of cyberbullies and other online thugs. Accepting that fact may be difficult, but it is necessary in the new digital age.
Your reputation is only as good as your Google results. What are you doing to protect yours?
Check out the Reputation.com Resource Center for more information about California’s recently passed anti-impersonation law, and what you can do to protect yourself from online impersonation.
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the future of Internet advertising, whether Facebook is going to build a search engine, and how a resourceful car wash owner tracked down a TV thief on Facebook.
As debate rages on in Washington D.C. over the legality of Internet tracking and behavioral advertising, one company has received lots of attention for its innovative take on Web ads. AdKeeper, which recently raised a $35 million second round of funding, gives Internet surfers the chance to skip advertisements by clicking an icon and “keeping” interesting web ads to browse later. The company already has a large group of advertisers on board, and will likely release its first public product this year.
With the sheer mass of information available about each one of us online, it’s no wonder identity theft is such a big problem. This article in the Wall Street Journal explains how information shared on one’s Facebook page can become perfect fodder for identity thieves. Even the most seemingly inconsequential piece of data can help an ID thief, because, as the article states, “thieves steal identities in pieces and layer them on each other for a clearer picture.” That’s why maintaining control over your Facebook profile, and your personal data elsewhere on the Web, is so important.
To help people get started on their Internet privacy resolutions for the New Year, ZDNet has compiled a four part guide to locking down a Facebook account. The multi-step guide offers insight into every part of the Facebook experience, including some of the lesser known features that allow backdoor entrances into user profiles.
In an interesting article for Search Engine Land, Greg Sterling wonders what Facebook has planned for its recently announced $500 million round of funding. After discussing possible tweaks to Internet advertising, Sterling writes that the next possible step for the company would be a proper move into search either through the acquisition of a social search company like Blekko or some further development with current investor Microsoft (and its search engine Bing).
The tech and gadget website Gearlog recounts the unusual story of how one man found justice after a thief stole a TV from his car wash. After learning that a TV was stolen from his business’ bathroom, the car wash owner looked over security tape and saw that the thief had previously paid for his service with a credit card. Using the name on the Credit Card receipt, the owner looked up the robber on Facebook and friended him. The thief, who apparently accepts friend requests from anyone, accepted the request, giving the owner access to the young man’s pictures. Once the owner determined that the thief was indeed the same young man, he offered him one chance to return the TV without police involvement. After the thief deleted the owner as a friend, the owner informed the police who promptly arrested the robber.
In an article for the marketing news website ClickZ.com, Kate Kaye breaks down some of the big privacy events of 2010 and analyzes what they might mean for the issue of Internet privacy in 2011. Specifically, Kaye discusses Internet advertising and the likely introduction of stricter privacy laws and regulations, such as the FTC’s “Do Not Track” rule, in the new year.]
In an article for Forbes, privacy blogger Kashmir Hill writes that a New York woman has filed a federal lawsuit against McDonald’s, CBS, Mazda, and Microsoft for using the advertising agency Interclick to track her online behavior. An Interclick spokesperson said the case has no merit, but similar lawsuits have settled out of court in the past, proving that there may be good money for law firms interested in suing over privacy issues.
In today’s semi-shortened Quick Hits, we talk about California’s new law banning online impersonation, whether or not 2010 was the year that privacy bit the bullet, and a U.S. District Court ruling on copyright that clarifies image use for Twitter users.
A new California law written, by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), banning online impersonation goes into effect this Saturday. The new law makes the offense a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. The law was written in response to growing concern over online impersonation and cyberbullying. The law is not perfect, however, as social media is constantly evolving and the law is not precise in defining criminal online impersonation, a fact that Simitian’s office acknowledges in this article form the San Jose Mercury News. Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik talked about the online impersonation law in a special segment with the BBC in September.
In an article for the BBC, Jane Wakefield looks back on 2010 and considers whether mistakes by companies like Facebook and Google indicate the year that personal privacy died, or rather awakened Internet users to the importance of personal privacy for the first time. The article also touches on the subjects of net neutrality and online piracy.
In a recent court ruling, U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley ruled that images shared on Twitter may not be used by third parties unaffiliated with the website without permission from the individual who took the picture. The case, which affirms standing copyright laws, revolved around a Twitter user’s attempts to sue news agencies that had used his images of the Haiti earthquake in their stories without proper attribution or permission. The news agencies argued that they didn’t require his permission, because the image was shared freely on a social networking website.
California officials are considering passing a law that would make it illegal to impersonate someone else online. In this BBC report, Maggie Shiels talks to Carl Guardino, who helped inspire the law, and State Senator Joe Simitian, who drafted the legislation. Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik is also featured in the piece, commenting on the dangers of e-impersonation and the importance of proactive online reputation management.
Check out the BBC segment below. Click here for the accompanying print article to the video piece.
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